On 2nd and 3rd July, 2018, the 2018 spring-semester working conference of the Bachelor Degree Evaluation Committee of the Open University of China (OUC) was held in Beijing. After its deliberations, 1,877 graduates, including Shen Yubei, were awarded OUC Bachelor degrees.

On 29th June, a video conference was held by the 23 members of the evaluation subcommittees for the majors of Economics and Agroforestry & Medicine. On the morning of 2nd July, the academic-degree-evaluation subcommittees for the majors of Law, Education, Literature, Science and Engineering, Business Administration and Public Administration held conferences attended by 61 members. The members of the subcommittees presented their suggestions for who should and should not be awarded Bachelor degrees, and discussed degree-related matters for their respective majors.

On the morning of 3rd July, the OUC convened a meeting of the Academic Degree Evaluation Committee presided over by committee chair Yang Zhijian and attended by vice chairs Li Linshu and Liu Chen, members of the Academic Degree Evaluation Committee, and staff of the relevant teaching and administrative departments. The meeting considered the lists submitted by the subcommittees and other items related to academic degrees.

A total of 2,132 graduates applied to receive Bachelor degrees, and following a round of deliberations and voting by the committees, the degrees were granted to 1,877 students, including Shen Yubei.

As requested by the OUC Academic Degrees Office, the Academic Degree Evaluation Committee approved the following items. First, it determined that a review committee or work team should be established in each branch to coordinate the review work for academic degrees in order to improve the quality of academic-degree conferment as well as strengthen the roles of each branch in the work of applying for academic degrees. Second, it determined that the foreign-language examination pilot project for the application of academic degrees would be initiated. Third, it decided that the PETS-4 (Public English Test System – Level 4) and higher would add a written examination as a requirement for the granting of an academic degree in the English and Business English majors. Fourth, it determined that survey reports conforming to academic-stylistic norms could be used as academic-degree theses for majors including Agroforestry & Medicine. Finally, it decided that the quality of a finished design would be the main criterion in the design category, and that checking for plagiarism would be optional in majors including Science and Engineering.

By Sun Li, OUC